CLENDENIN, W.Va. — Valley View Drive runs along a small stream and makes a loop from Route 4 at Queen Shoals in Kanawha County to the top of a mountain near Lizemores in Clay County. The stream, which is narrow enough in some places to step across, widened out into a raging river on June 23rd and wiped out everything in its path down the narrow valley.
“All my vehicles are down the road,” said Terry Young. “My truck, my wife’s vehicle, my young ‘uns truck, my boat. Just about everything I’ve got is all down through there.”
Young’s truck was hardly recognizable. The hunk of metal lay along the roadside a mile downstream. His boat was on its side against a tree a half mile from his home. A bridge in front of Young’s home was standing, but had shifted off its mounts and detached from the roadway. A car was at the center of a debris pile which backed up against the upstream side of the bridge. In many places it’s hard to distinguish the roadway from the creek bed and in some cases you had to drive through the creek. Department of Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox called Valley View Drive the most damaged road in the state from the flood.
“It’s in great shape now compared to what it was,” said Young. “The second day I think one car came by and checked on us. The third day there were several more in and out of here just looking at stuff. The third day I caught a ride with somebody and went down to Smith’s in Clendenin to get some water and supplies. Everybody has been so good to us. In fact they brought us so much we started to turn it down because we had nowhere to put it.”
Young and his wife lugged load after load of belongings out of their home, piling it up on the roadside to be hauled away.
“The water was 19 inches in the kitchen and inside the garage here it was about two foot,” he said. “Those big ole trees right there washed out and we couldn’t even see them coming down through there.”
The flood worsened when a small stream draining off the mountain beside his home broke free and sent a large volume of water off the mountain, running past his house.
“I was trying to tie up my mortar machine and I heard a noise and I guess a wood dam broke,” he said. “Water came running down this hollow about 15 feet wide.”
He had to abandon his machine and run for higher ground to escape the torrent.
Young is running his home on generator power. He’s bathing each night in his above ground swimming pool, which ironically wasn’t touched by the flood water. Living in a home along the creek, this isn’t his first flood but it was definitely the worst.
“This is as high as it’s ever been,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see what we can get from FEMA before we decided whether to move or build back. If I build back, I’m going to make some changes so if it comes again I can get everything up off the floor and there won’t be as much damage.”